A tool is used to selectively form or create an object. It should be realized, at the outset, that the term “tool”, as used throughout this description, is meant to refer to any device, assembly, and/or tangible entity which is adapted to be selectively used to form or create substantially any sort of object and that nothing in this description is meant to (or should be construed as) limiting the tool to that which produces a certain object or a certain class or group of objects.
Typically, a tool is formed from a substantially solid block of material (e.g., the tool is “cut” from, machined from, and/or burned from the block of material). While this traditional approach does allow a tool to be created, it is costly and highly inefficient. Particularly, this cost and inefficiency increases in direct proportion to the size of the desired tool.
Another approach to creating a tool is found within U.S. Pat. No. 6,587,742 (“The '742 patent”) which issued on Jul. 1, 2003, which is assigned to Applicant's assignee, and which is fully and completely incorporated herein by reference, word for word and paragraph for paragraph.
The foregoing approach is oftentimes referred to as a “lamination strategy or technique” and involves the initial creation of a “soft model” (i.e., a model which is manifested within software) of the tool, and the later use of this soft model to form-several sectional members which are later physically coupled and cooperatively form the desired tool. This technique dramatically reduces the cost and increases the overall efficiency of the tool creating process.
One of the common features of each of the foregoing diverse strategies involve the need for ejecting the formed object from the tool. Typically each of these diverse approaches utilizes a separate ejection assembly which is operatively placed below the tool and below the formed object. The ejection assembly typically includes several selectively extendable pins or members which selectively extend through openings which are formed within the tool and selectively contact the formed object in order to forcibly disengage the formed object from the tool.
While such an ejection assembly does usually or normally forcibly eject the formed object from the tool, it suffers from several disadvantages. By way of example and without limitation, this traditional ejection assembly includes a relatively large number of components which must be produced and assembled to very accurate tolerances, thereby undesirably increasing the overall cost and time of production. Further, due to the relatively large amount of moving members, this traditional ejector assembly is prone to jamming and breakage and requires a relatively large amount of repair and preventative type of maintenance, thereby further undesirably increasing the overall cost of production. Further, the speed or force of impact of the selectively expandable members against the formed part is not regulated, thereby increasing the likelihood of undesired damage to the formed object (especially of objects which are formed from a relatively soft material) and the improper retraction of these movable elements may cause damage to the tool. Further, these movable elements or pins are typically received by and traverse an ejector plate before entering the tool. Typically the ejector place typically causes a side or deforming load to be placed upon or imparted to the movable elements, thereby causing these movable elements to frictionally and respectively engage the sides of the tool openings that they respectively traverse as they selectively engage the formed object, thereby undesirably causing these openings to be wearably modified and the tool to be damaged. Each of these foregoing difficulties is made to be even more pronounced or magnified by the traditional need to “operatively marry” a separately produced tool and a separately produced ejector assembly, each of which typically represents a complicated assembly which must be produced and operated in accordance with very close or “tight” tolerances.
There is therefore a need for a new and improved tool assembly, a method for making a tool assembly, and a method for ejecting a formed object from a tool assembly which overcomes some or all of the previously delineated drawbacks of prior techniques and the present invention achieves these advantages.